Summer is here (if you live in the northern hemisphere)! The weather is warmer–downright hot in some places, school is out, and the stores are playing the Beach Boys Muzak rotations. It’s time to put away the sweaters, heavy coats, scarves and mittens and get back to getting as much air on your skin as possible!
Please notice we didn’t say sun. We’ll talk about that in a minute.
Like with any shift in seasons, some prep work is involved in getting yourself summer ready. Here are the bases you need to cover if you want your summer to be a home run.
- Shake Up Your Workout
Far be it for us to tell you exactly what kind of shape you should be in now that it is summer. What matters is that you are healthy. Still, we know how it feels to walk around in a bathing suit for the first time that season and to feel like we wished we had dropped at least a couple of pounds before venturing out. Don’t shut yourself in at home. Instead, a great way to combat that stress and to feel good in your body is to find ways to work out outside! Heck, even if it is just in your backyard, that’s better than staying in your basement or inside at the gym!
- Get a Haircut!
Long heavy layers are for winter when you need the weight of all of that hair to help keep your head warm. During the summer, the goal is to keep your hair off of your face as much as possible, so why not get a really awesome and fun summer cut? Going shorter (maybe even pixie, if you have the right face shape for it) helps keep you cool and makes your hair more manageable for all of the time you’ll be spending by the side of the pool or at the beach.
If your face doesn’t take short haircuts well, ask your stylist to thin your winter hair out some, just to reduce the weight you’ve been carrying. The less hair you have to twist up and off of your neck, the better!
- Speaking of Haircuts….
The hair on your head isn’t the only hair you need to take care of this season. While we absolutely stand by every woman’s right to have as much or as little body hair as she wants, if going hairless is your thing, it’s time to find a good salon. Otherwise you’ll be shaving every single day for the next four months! Nobody wants to do that.
One option that gets more popular every year is forgoing the waxing and springing for laser hair removal. It’s trending big time in beach cities like Los Angeles and San Diego. One reason it’s so popular, says Global Laser Cosmetics, which has some of the more cutting edge laser hair removal San Diego has to offer, is that unlike waxing and other types of treatments, there is very little recovery time involved. You go in for your appointment, get your follicles zapped and can be ready for the beach in only the amount of time it takes you to put on sunscreen.
Plus, you only have to have a few treatments to get rid of the hair entirely and hopefully forever, which is way better than having to go in for a wax every other week!
- Stock Up
Get stocked up on your favorite top-quality sunscreens now, before the shelves are decimated. If you want the good stuff, buy it now and buy a lot of it while it is still on sale otherwise you risk spending twice as much later on…or, worse, having to smell like cheap pharmacy sunscreen for most of the season. Yuck! Plus, the good stuff will allow you to get a natural tan while still protecting you against melanoma. Most discounted and generic sunscreen won’t.
Now is also a good time to stock up on summer fashion you know is coming back. Maxi dresses, for example, are going to be everywhere again this summer. Grab a few now, while the selection is still good! Invest in some solid and supportive (but still fashionable) footwear too. You don’t want your pretty pedicure trucking around in sandals with no arch support!
These are our top four ways to ready ourselves inside and out for beach season and hot summer weather. What are some of the things you’re doing to get summer-ready this year?